IHF Awards

Deadline for entries is extended to 30 June

Annual event recognizing excellent projects, programmes, and services of hospitals and health service providers across the globe.

Start your entry today.

Recognizing excellence in healthcare

Launched in 2015, the IHF Awards honours excellence in hospitals and healthcare organizations around the world. The winners of the IHF Awards 2023 will be announced during a special Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner on 26 October at the 46th IHF World Hospital Congress in Lisbon, Portugal.

Deadline for entries is extended to 30 June!

Start planning your entries by reading more about the previous winners.

For inquiries, please send an email to awards@ihf-fih.org. To know if your organization is a Member of the IHF, check out our community of members.

Submit entries now!

Seven categories open for nominations

Award categories

  • Dr Kwang Tae Kim Grand Hospital Award

    The Dr Kwang Tae Kim Grand Hospital Award is the highest honour for an individual hospital within the IHF. This award is open to IHF Members and their member hospitals. The successful hospital nominee will demonstrate excellence in each of the five dimensions of healthcare delivery:

    • Health service quality
    • Patient experience
    • Clinical outcomes and health equity
    • Cost efficiency
    • Workforce wellbeing

    The recipient of this distinguished award will demonstrate outstanding performance and achievement in each of these dimensions. The hospital nominee will need to show how their hospital’s vision and operation have created a culture of excellence and should give evidence of clear measurable examples of success.

    Download sample entry form.

  • Seddiqi Holding Excellence Award for Corporate Social Responsibility

    This award is open to IHF Members, their member hospitals and health service providers who demonstrate excellence or outstanding achievements in advancing corporate social responsibility. The nominee will be a project, programme, or service which clearly demonstrates a commitment to corporate social responsibility in one or more of these areas:

    • reducing inequalities in healthcare service delivery;
    • advancing universal healthcare;
    • providing high-quality and affordable healthcare services for all regardless of the ability to pay;
    • promoting and demonstrating inclusion and diversity in their workforce;
    • developing and implementing successful innovative and ethical responses to social, climate and environmental issues;
    • harnessing a network of local stakeholders for sustainable and systemic responses to public health concerns.

    Download sample entry form.

  • Ashikaga-Nikken Excellence Award for Green Hospitals

    This award is open to IHF Members, their member hospitals or health service providers who demonstrate excellence or outstanding achievements in promoting “green hospital” initiatives. The nominee will be a project which demonstrates success related to environmental sustainability. Examples include:

    • demonstrating energy efficiencies or savings, or significant use of renewable energy on-site;
    • reducing environmental impacts including air pollution and water footprint;
    • reducing greenhouse gas emission with measurable evidence of success;
    • creating a safe, secure, and resilient environment in preparation for natural disasters and climate-change related events;
    • providing an eco-friendly and comfortable environment for patients and staff through the use of innovative processes and/or smart technologies;
    • promoting, developing, and demonstrating the practice of medicine and care in a sustainable manner;
    • collaborating across architectural design and hospital planning to realize a green and healthy hospital environment;
    • reducing and safely disposing of medical waste in a sustainable manner;
    • engaging with supply chains to ensure more sustainable practices and products;
    • collaborating with stakeholders to ensure a more sustainable and health promoting environment for communities;
    • supporting and promoting a culture of environmental sustainability through committed organizational leadership.

    Download sample entry form.

  • Sultanate of Oman Excellence Award for Health Services During Crisis

    This award is open to all government, public and private hospitals and health service delivery organizations who operate in a low-income country (as defined by the World Bank criteria) and/or operate in a region, territory, or country during times of significant crisis (war or natural disaster). The award recognizes excellence or outstanding achievements in delivering health services despite the challenging environment. To qualify for the award:

    • the hospital or health service delivery organization must be based in a low-income country as defined by the World Bank and/or in a region, territory or country facing a major crisis (war or natural disaster);
    • the hospital or health service delivery organization has experienced or is currently experiencing a crisis that places a significant strain on its operations;
    • the hospital or health service delivery organization has developed and implemented a project, programme, or service which demonstrated excellence or outstanding achievements despite the harsh conditions;
    • a significant part of the project, programme, or service should be attributed to the organization’s workforce and their efforts and initiatives to deliver health care under challenging circumstances.

    Download sample entry form.

  • American Hospital Association Excellence Award for Healthcare Workers’ Wellbeing

    This award is open to IHF Members, their member hospitals and health service providers who demonstrate excellence or outstanding achievements in ensuring the wellbeing of healthcare workers through innovative projects, programmes, or services. Achievements should be measurable and can be in the areas of staff recruitment, retention, engagement and workplace environment. Examples include but are not limited to:

    • taking an active, creative, and innovative role in retaining staff;
    • ensuring a high level of staff engagement and job satisfaction for clinical and administrative workers;
    • demonstrating success in interventions which support staff wellbeing and combat staff burnout;
    • promoting the physical and mental health of healthcare workers.

    Download sample entry form.

  • American College of Healthcare Executives Excellence Award for Leadership and Management

    This award is open to IHF Members, their member hospitals or health service providers who demonstrate excellence or outstanding achievements in leadership and management. The nominee will be a project, programme, or service which demonstrates success in leadership and management. Examples include but are not limited to:

    • strengthening governance mechanisms, enabling all staff to be heard by senior leadership;
    • creating a culture that fosters clinical and non-clinical staff engagement and strengthens collaboration;
    • achieving major breakthroughs in innovative care delivery;
    • achieving improvements in patient-reported outcomes and patient experience.

    Download sample entry form.

  • Austco Excellence Award for Quality and Patient Safety

    This award is open to IHF Members, their member hospitals and health service providers who demonstrate excellence or outstanding achievements in promoting quality and patient safety. The nominee will be a project, programme, or service which demonstrates success in improving quality and patient safety. Examples include but are not limited to:

    • developing and promoting new or improved services or models of care with quality and patient safety as a core objective and with measurable evidence of success;
    • building a workplace culture of patient safety at all organizational levels;
    • enhancing workforce education on the importance of patient engagement and empowerment;
    • improving quality of care for underserved or at-risk patient populations;
    • improving the application of quality and patient safety principles to reduce preventable infections, medication and procedural errors.

    Download sample entry form.

Benefits for award winners include:

Eligibility and entry rules

  • Hospitals and healthcare service providers (government, public or private) which are current members of the IHF are eligible for the IHF Awards.
  • Consultancy companies and vendors are not eligible to submit entries.
  • Nominees for the Excellence Awards must be recent projects, programmes, or services and can only be submitted in one category.
  • For the Grand Hospital Award, the nominees are hospitals.
  • All information including the supporting documents, must be submitted in English.
  • All entries need the endorsement of the organization’s CEO, President, Hospital Director or Chairperson of the Governing Board. Download the template here.

Judging process 

The IHF Award nominees will be assessed by a panel of experienced global healthcare leaders serving on the IHF Awards Committee. Members of the Committee will use their expertise and knowledge of the healthcare industry to score each entry on its merits, using the following criteria:

Criteria for Excellence Awards

  • Projects, programmes, or services should be creative and innovative, and designed to meet a specific need;
  • The project, programme, or service must be able to provide evidence of its impact with a focus on quality, efficiency, health outcomes, and sustainability;
  • The project, programme, or service should demonstrate potential for adaptability and scalability to national, regional or global level;
  • The project, programme, or service design and outcome measures should demonstrate scientific rigor;
  • The presentation and vision of the project, programme, or service should be summarized clearly and succinctly.

Criteria for the Grand Hospital Award

  • Demonstrated success in the five dimensions of health service quality, patient experience, clinical outcomes and health equity, cost efficiency, and workforce wellbeing.
  • Capacity of the hospital to sustain its success.
  • Clarity of the presentation.

Seven categories open for entries

The deadline for submissions is on 30 June.

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